Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was “pranked” during phone calls by pro-Kremlin Russian “comedians” posing as African diplomats, reports Independent.
Russian duo Vovan and Lexus have targeted Varadkar as their latest high-profile target, after previously making headlines for “prank calls” with the likes of Elton John and Bernie Sanders.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was recently defrauded by these two men.
According to Varadkar’s spokesman, the pair gained access to the prime minister by posing as representatives of the African Union Commission.
The video meeting took place earlier this year, and a 13-minute clip of the meeting was uploaded to the social networking site Rumble.
It shows the Prime Minister being questioned about the war in Ukraine and the United Ireland, reports Independent.
However, the Taoiseach’s spokesperson said the clip “does not represent what actually took place on the call”.
“Earlier this year the Taoiseach took part in a virtual meeting on the understanding that it was with a representative of the African Union Commission. The Taoiseach ended the call early due to suspicions about its nature and the manner in which it was conducted. It transpired to be a sophisticated deep-fake. The material that has now been released has evidently been doctored and overdubbed in heavily-accented English, and does not represent what actually took place on the call,” reports Independent.
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